Once in a while, The New York Times reminds me why it is I still pay over $40 a month for its print pub. But this weekend wasn't one of those magical times.
In a "news story" on Sunday, The Times published a traumatizing tale of "death by blogging" -- apparently the latest fatal syndrome caused by the Internet and its cursèd 24/7 existence.
The story detailed the great stress imposed upon bloggers who, as a result of job-related pressure and the incessant need to post (and post, and post!), skip meals and Zs -- and are thus taking on great health risks. In the past few months, The Times points out, the blogger community has lost 60-year-old Russell Shaw and 50-year-old Marc Orchant to heart attacks. Om Malik, 41, too, endured a heart attack, but survived to blog the tale.
Some bloggers, like TechCrunch's Founder Michael Arrington, haven't faced death just yet... but expect to: "At some point, I'll have a nervous breakdown and be admitted to the hospital, or something else will happen."
Here's a tip: Maybe you could get over yourself and take a vacation?
I'm not trivializing stress in the always-on blogger community, nor the health risks posed by stress. Well. Maybe a bit. But The New York Times' unscientific projection of a few unfortunate blogger breakdowns upon the whole community is sensationalistic and unproductive. It sort of makes me want to blog my own resignation letter from the Earth.
It seems that, overnight (while all but the blog writers were sleeping), we revamped our idea of bloggers from the pajama-clad lazies scarfing Hot Pockets in their parents' basements to modern-day warriors, dying for their cause (which is, by the way, to make ad money). To them, we owe our right to information overload, clad with imprecise, un-researched facts and grammatical errors.
The fact is, such generalizations serve little purpose. Bloggers and the blogosphere are about as diverse as, say, people on Earth. To start projecting a few anecdotal health or social phenomena upon the whole lot is, well... kinda stupid.
I suppose it won't be long now before a Google search for "hero" produces ads for "Support Our Bloggers" yellow-ribbon bumper stickers. (And, according to Silicon Valley entrepreneur Marc Andressen, here are some related headlines you can expect from the trusty Times in the near future.)
One idea that may very well be prevalent in today's world within literature, philosophy and spirituality may be that "We're angry about this, upset about that, but who has the time to do anything anymore?"
Thanks for the link Paul. Perhaps it will help raise positive consciousness or questions, for example: in order to have greater achievements associated with high purposes, must one work continuously, or if more people are positive catalysts and contributors to enabling urgent and important changes (and as a world we are more one on the related journey) is it possible that more of humankind could enjoy more of the related benefits as well as have more leisure, peace, happiness, fun and joy in the meantime? Perhaps it would help if periodically bloggers went for a walk in nature with a friend while trying to send positive energy into the interconnected universe without usage of a cell, ipod etc. ???
I think most people will agree on this one but how do we get out of this rut will be the greatest challenge for each one of us. This article sums up perfectly the issues at stake:
The article basically is pointing out some virtues of being "idle" and this sound pretty "un-western"!! I don't think this issue is one bloggers only but also to the vast majority of folks who have wired their existence around the internet. It's really an unpleasnat dilemma!!!
I understand professional blogging. By that I don't mean people who do it for a living, but people who do it as part of their job and in regards to professional issues. What I don't understand is what goes on in the minds of the rest of the bloggers out there. And by the way, blog, blogging and bloggers were not found in my 2003 version of spell check.
What has made us into the type of society that puts so much importance on "social" networking to the point that people are stressing over it? Why don't we want to be experiencing the real world anymore? Why do people want to spend more time in virtual worlds than they do in their own? Does society put so much pressure on us that we now find our solace in solitude? Busy schedules and lack of time can't be the reason.If one has time for blogging and creating virtual worlds to live in and explore (even at the expense of sleep or meals), this same time can be spent having bona fide social interaction. Have we become an egocentric society and the virtual world is the one we can live in and have it finally revolve around us? Is the virtual world perceived as being so much better than the one we live in? Maybe the recession is to blame, after all, it doesn't cost much to sit at the screen and type, whereas having the same interaction in the outside world means having to incur potential costs for transportation, entertainment, any consumables, babysitters fees, and my gosh, one may even have to make the effort to groom themselves before leaving the house.
Wouldn't it be great, even phenomenal, if one tenth of the energy that went into blogging went into something that actually could be used to improve the quality of life? I don't even mean in a save the world kind of improvement. How about planting a garden and eating some organic food? How about taking your kid (or pet, or self) to the park? How about visiting someone who is too old read your blog? How about going to a cafe and having a real discussion, in real time, with real people about anything? ooops, I guess all of the above might actually make the world a little better.
By way of disclosure, I am in my pajamas, drinking coffee. Am I succumbing?
Oh darn…I thought you meant webstress as in web mistress, not Web Stress (stress caused by the Internet) or webStress (testing your Internet infrastructure). The webstresses (rarrrr) can give you heart attacks too.
Sure thing... and there's no doubt it's very stressful when you're trying to also break stories on the always-on Internet ahead of several competitors. Recognizing job stress is one thing, building a whole Sunday news story about blogger death is quite another. Prediction: "Blogger death" will replace "dentist suicide" as the epidemic of the new era!
“Blogging Causes HerpesBloggers Shorter than Normal PeopleWant To Contract Malaria? Try BloggingBloggers Have Bad BreathLeprosy and Blogging May Be ConnectedHitler Probably BloggedNow Bloggers Aren't Even Wearing PajamasBlogging Fad Almost OverAnd of course, the inevitable, perennial favorite:Child Abuser/Serial Killer/Campus Shooter Had a Blogp.s. The Judy Miller memorial New York Times blogging story headline”
These findings are hilarious but, make sense to a certain extent. I don’t know about these above cited diseases but I am sure that blogging causes backache and possible blindness in the long run. How about diabetes? Anyway, I will stop blogging if she explains how it can cause malaria. I am from Senegal, and I know the dangers of that disease.
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
Ahh, the holiday season is upon us: People have begun bargain hunting, department stores are donning premature decorations, turkeys are being shot to death, and email inboxes everywhere are being graced with season-appropriate promotional materials so absurd, one might think they were actually written by the clinically insane.
Considering President Obama went and took the Nobel Peace Prize this year (attention hog, much?), Internet Evolution had to settle for a nomination for the second best prize in the world: a MIN Editorial & Design award. And we're happy to say that we won. Big time.
NEW YORK -- Web 2.0 Expo -- Here at the Javits Center in New York City, several industry innovators have come out to take the stage at the Web 2.0 Expo. But some are having a hard time keeping the audience's attention. The culprit? What else? Twitter.
The debate over whether Google is fairly aggregating newspaper content online has been going on for a while, with Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. leading the discourse. Typically it's followed a consistent pattern: Murdoch complains about Google stealing its content to no real benefit to his company, someone suggests hiding the content from Google, and things get quiet on the News Corp. side of the room.
While Google introduces its new Chrome OS (which I'm hearing will be widely available in one year? Did I mishear that?), IBM announced 10 new products today to help companies using IBM System z mainframe technology.
Smarter Collaboration: How to Thrive in a Challenging Business Environment Market conditions are changing faster than ever, and organizations need to improve their agility and adaptability in order to provide better service and improve processes. The ability to work with customers, business partners, and employees as effectively as possible - while at the same time holding down costs - is a key to success. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
As enterprises leap into the Web 2.0 world of blogging, commenting, and social networking, just 'being there' won't deliver ROI. You may want a 'Web Evangelist' to systematically harvest the feedback in order to polish your product or service.
Evidence shows that you can tweet too much. Sites and services like Twitter and Facebook are a good place to reach your audience, but think quality over quantity.
A digital content market is emerging. Only two things are known about it: the first is that at some point the Internet will primarily become a paid network. The second known factor is that there are innumerable variables in the digital content market that have yet to be worked out. It’s not known, for example, exactly how users will pay for content (micropayments, subscriptions, bartering of farm animals, other).
Bad news! By eliminating the world’s digital divide we’re likely to create a new divide: the information divide, where we end up creating a two-tier Internet where access to 'quality' content is controlled and charged for by mega-corporations, and the gulf between information haves and have-nots is entirely dependent on how much money they have. This is, of course, an almost exact inversion of the current situation on the Internet – where access is expensive and content is free.
Good news! The cost of Internet infrastructure, services, and access devices has been plummeting at an accelerating rate over the last 10 years and will approach a point in the next 20 years where these technologies become so fantastically cheap that ubiquitous, low-cost, high-speed networks, storage, and access devices will effectively eliminate the digital divide for most of the world's population.
More companies are trolling social networks to find and vet potential job candidates. Beware the pitfalls of blurring the line between personal and professional lives.
Industry initiatives and government stimulus funds are giving enterprise software vendors a great opportunity to help build out and manage smart grid technologies.
The problem with telepresence is that it's not universally accepted, because video calling isn't. While we can all do video calling, we also apparently worry too much about how we look. If we want HD telepresence in our future, we have to dress down, mess up our hair, and dive into our online life.
The US loses about $20 billion a year on pirated software, movies, and music. But public policy can help stem the tide of digital theft. For example, France has recently passed a 'three strikes and you’re out' law, whereby if after two warning letters an individual continues to download pirated software then his Internet access will be cut off. US policy makers should consider adopting similar policies.
Financial management planning does not need to include Voodoo economics, but it does help to tap into the knowledge base of your team through some sort of real-time system. We explore your options.
When Reiter gets incensed over incompetent Verizon FiOS order-taking and support, he broadcasts it via Twitter. Did it do any good? How should your company offer Twitter support? Watch this for all the answers.
The successor to the BlackBerry Bold 9000 – the Bold 9700 – will be available soon in the US. Is it worth upgrading? Reiter's got one, and offers advice.
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Email This
TWEET THIS
